Picketers Outside ‘The View’ Guardedly Optimistic About Reported Progress In WGA Strike Talks: “Seems That It’s Kind Of For Real”

deadline.com:

This is Day 143 of the WGA strike and Day 70 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Writers picketing ABC’s The View on Thursday in New York City reacted guardedly to news that negotiations between their striking union and the production studios were continuing for a second consecutive day this week.

They cited an earlier effort at restarting contract talks that quickly broke off and led to more public sparring between the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.  “You can’t ever guess too much because every time it seems like the tone is different, it’s like, ‘all right, nothing happened,’” writer, actor and comedian Larry Wilmore told Deadline outside the ABC television studio complex in Manhattan where The View has continued production despite the guild designating the daytime talk mainstay as a struck show.

Rumors were circulating Wednesday night that the strike could be over as soon as today, Wilmore said, while cautioning that he had no inside knowledge about negotiations.

Bill Scheft, a staff writer and WGA shop steward for Late Show with David Letterman, told Deadline that he’s heard about hints of recent progress, despite hostilities among the chiefs of the streaming and legacy studios that could complicate talk with writers.  “You don’t think Netflix wants ABC to go belly up?